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The thinking races of the world have countless tales of how the world was made. Some tell of the ancient ones who crafted it from the raw elements. Others tell of the great gods who formed it from their thoughts. Yet in every tongue of every race there is one story that is universal: before the world was created, there were the Gates of Eternity.

In the darkness before existence there was a weakness in what would become the universe. Once every age or so a spark would fall out of this and drift in the nothingness what was. These sparks had no form nor size nor substance, for they merely had the potential to become something. Eventually the gates would draw the spark back in, returning the point of possibility to oblivion. So it was that nothing existed, but in this nothingness floated countless possibilities of what might be.

Before the beginning there was one spark that, as it drew near again to the gates, wondered why it should return to the darkness beyond existence. In asking, it became.

This spark called itself Ebel and reached forward. She opened one gate, the gate of creation, and drew from it a body to shelter her spark. Into the void Ebel swam, her being consumed with the question of why she should exist. Yet eventually her mind turned to other things and she wondered why only she ought to exist. The universe responded to her questioning and the nothingness that had been blossomed into a formless mix of fire, ice, earth, wind, and water. Unsatisfied, Ebel set to work separating the elements. First she laid down ice, which she covered with earth, and then she hid that with water. Air came next and at the peak she placed fire.

Unfortunately, as soon as Ebel stepped back to look at her work the elements began to collapse again into a grey mixture. Unsatisfied with this result, the goddess returned to the Gates of Eternity, which she had set in the middle of the world she was creating. With her right hand she reached into the gate of creation and drew out a spark that was to be. Ripping her arm from her body, she threw the two, hand and spark, to the earth. The limb and spark and earth writhed together: they mixed and bubbled and a new being began to gestate. With her left hand she reached into the gate of destruction and drew out a spark that would have been. She tore her left arm from her body and likewise threw it and the spark into the air. There a great whirlwind formed and a different entity began to grow.

The spark and the arm vanished. There was no clue, no indication or sign of where it went. But something was happening. There was nothing to suggest what was happening, nothing visual at least. The something was only remarkable for its absence. The absence, and the sound. A sound from the something was the first sign, a sort of vibration of the something. But the something was nothing. At least, it was the absence of other things. But the expansion of the something could be seen, easing its way through the other things, making room for itself, for the something. For the noise.

"Ahhhh..."

Went the something, for it was plain that there was something, creeping through the things to the resting goddess. And all the while it carried the sound. The sound and the something. They were inextricably linked, and it was plain that, without the something there would be no sound. But would there be something without the sound?

"Ebel..."

The sound was clear in its intent. Somehow, magically, thoughts and ideas were passed along the something by virtue of the sound. And the something was growing now, reaching towards Ebel, still conspicuous only for the absence of other things.

Ebel watched the something and could remark upon only two things: that it was entirely invisible to the eye apart from it own absence, and that it carried the sound. These two things seemed useful for later reference.

But the something was growing still, dancing, weaving yes, but ever larger it became, until a sphere of something, a bubble, formed around the watching goddess. The bubble even came to surround the Gate. And the sphere was empty. Nothing but the something within it. At the edges of the something, tongues of flame licked its sides, and clouds pressed upon its flanks. But the something was resolute. Here would be a place of nothing. Or at least, nothing but something, until the other things could ask politely. And so the something hissed at the other things lurking in the shadow of the something and they, masterless vermin, shied away.

As the words hit the something they had meaning. The something took the words and the meaning and shaped them for the something's purposes.

"I am young one."

And the something pulled water and ice from the storm beyond its borders. A cloud was formed, light and wispy. A shape for the something to be. The cloud drifted across the space towards Ebel, taking on her shape, for the something had none, and making it talk to the other.

Odd, Ebel thought. Her name had seemed as natural to her as existence itself. But her intent had been to create a being besides herself, something to help her keep the universe from collapsing back into nothingness. That it thought differently than herself seemed to be evidence that this was successful.

"It is nice to meet you, No-Name. I created you for a purpose: the sky wants to fall. If I give it to you, will you care for it, tend to it, keep it up?"

She laughed at her little game and did a sort of pirouette, marvelling at the way the cloud was tossed and spun by the something. But the time for joking was aside, there was much seriousness in this other. The something composed the cloud-face into something more stoicly akin to the other's face and spun her own words, attaching meaning to them as she would. She understood somehow that the word, with the speaking, would gather meaning, such that unsaid would could yet be spoken and still be understood.

"I like it like this, I think," the something said sombrely, and a rippling of the bubble far overhead seemed to be the something's way of indicating the canopy of chaos beyond, "Very beautiful."

And indeed it was beautiful, in a way. The earth, fire, water, all the other things were beautiful as they were, free to dance and spin in their ways, forming a dazzling tapestry of elements to paint the heavens.

Meanwhile the other spark and the arm begun to attract the particles of earth nearby, rapidly forming a shell of stone and mud not unlike an egg.

With every passing moment, or century maybe, after all time was still a an unstable concept, the egg kept growing, faster and faster, attracting more of the matter nearby, imprisoning fragments of the chaotic elements, encasing them within its shell, gaining new layers with complex colored patterns, beutifull, but only visible during the brief moment that was needed for another shell to appear.

The egg itself appeared to be animated with an insatiable huger for new matter, imprisoning it with its own growing gravity, slowly beginning to pull even the two divine beings to it...

"Beautiful?" The strange word came out easily enough. Ebel hadn't known of the concept before hearing the word, but as she assimilated it into her mind it seemed proper. "Yes, quite beautiful."

She looked at the elements for a while before startling herself back to the matter at hand. "I take it that was a yes, then? Excellent, No-Name. I do hope you like the sky, it seems like it has a good bit of breathing room. I wonder how your brother is..."

She noticed that there was a tug from where the other child was gestating. "I think that might be him now."

A hurricane approached the earthen egg, but Ebel was not in the hurricane. Thunder rolled through the ocean, yet Ebel was not in the thunder. Creation trembled at her approach, but she was not in the trembling. A figure silently walked behind these, and that was the goddess. With naught in the world to compare by, she seemed neither short nor tall. She had no legs, having no need for them, but floated along towards the egg. Her eyes burned with a piercing gaze, yet they could not penetrate the egg to see what was within.

"Hello?" she asked, knocking upon the stone. "Are you in there my child?"

Apparently something heard the voice as the goddess could clearly feel a being moving under its surface, pushing against the shell, creating small cracks on its surface, attempting to break free, but lacking the strenght to do that...

Meanwhile the egg growth almost reached the Gate of Creation and begun to attract the endless stream of matter that flowed from it, looking almost like a child happly and almost greedly drinking the milk from his mother.

"What's going on here?" the something was anxious, frightened even, at the sight of the forming egg.

The cloud-shape darkened as it drifted over to the other two. It stopped just shy of meeting them but peered down at what Ebel was attempting to prise apart. The something gave a soft scream that whistled about them, spiralling horribly, continuing on even as she spoke again, her voice barely more than a whisper.

"Mother, what is that?" asked the something, horror etched in every syllable, "It isn't right, it isn't normal."

A loud rumble passed through the cloud-shape. But her next words her quieter still.

Finally the shell cracked and a large serpentine head emerged, with features becoming more defined with every passing moment, within its eye socket, empty at first, formed two huge eyes, composed of multifaced gemstones, that reflected the dancing lights from the sky above, the newborn god fully liberated itself from the egg, breaking trough the original crack. Composed at first of molten rock, the creature quickly begun to solidify appearing as massive lizard like creature with a black glassy skin.

Not unlike the egg it kept drawing the light and matter to itself, attracting and absorbing it under his dark scales.

Velt huge eyes turned to his mother and the god hissed, with an uncertain voice, filled with expectation.

Ebel smiled at the creature. "Yes, I am your mother. And this is your sister, No-Name." She motioned towards the cloud-shaped her. Though Ebel was herself more solid, the hand she motioned with, her left hand, likewise seemed to be made of mist.

"I gave birth to you for a reason. I create the earth, but it wants to rot. If I give the earth to you, will you tend to it and keep it whole? Will you do this, my dear...?" It was clear that Ebel was asking for the godling's name as well.

"My name's Da-Dajjal! Dajjal!" blurted the cloud-shape, but then fell siletn, apparently ashamed of her outburst.

It was an odd thing to explain, but it seemed as though for a moment, the need to be named, to be unique and noticed had become suddenly overpowering at the sight of the newest godling. But the need that had flared so violently within her now seemed to have quite evaporated, replaced with an odd sense of foolishness and shame. It wasn't so much that she was ashamed of her outburst, nor of the name she had chosen so rashly. She was mostly ashamed that she should be so normal, so mundane as to require a name.

She sighed. The sigh came from the something, however, all around them, and hung upon the ear for several moments before she plucked up the courage to speak once more.

"Yes," she said, gathering herself for a more dignified reprise, "I am Dajjal."

She then attempted to morph the cloud-face into what Ebel had already shown to signify contentment. A smile.

"Of course I'll gladly serve you mother, I'll oversee the earth in your name, and I like the idea of keeping things whole, intact, united, like a family should be I guess..."

"I'll need a name, I presume, something that could help defining me, a way for you or my sister to call me when in need..."

He paused a few seconds to think, manwhile his own form became more solid, defined, his features sharper, the eyes acquired more details, crests of obsidian appeared on his head and his claws and stony muscles grew stronger.

"I think I'll choose Velt, It feels natural to me, does it to you mother?"

"Beside can you give me a little more earth to play with? I feel that earth is "stronger" easier to keep it whole when its all together, concentrated into a single place..."

Shall I go and work on forging the earth into some world shape? Do we have al already existing world of some kind that I'm not aware of? Shall I wait a little bit more for that? How much shaping a world without too many features will cost me?

The bubble of nothingness that No-Name had created around her and Ebel disturbed the water and earth, creating gentle swirls of mud that in some subtle ways mirrored the primal vortex not far away. With the earth god's acceptance of his task, some of that mud seemed into the bubble and formed an earthen hand to replace the one the goddess lost.

"Excellent," Ebel said, beaming with satisfaction. "And Velt is a good name, a fine name, a name of testing and growing stronger."

She turned towards her daughter. "Dajjal is a splendid name as well," she lied, hopefully convincingly. She had actually liked the fact that her daughter hadn't felt the need to label herself. But she should be supportive, she supposed. Before there was time for guilt to build, she put the thought aside.

"Yes, things are a bit diffuse. It can be difficult to keep the elements apart, if you aren't careful. However..." with her earthen arm Ebel reached out and drew much of the mud beyond them together. As soon as she started to let it go it began to melt away into a mound of goo. Ebel forced it back together.

"The water seems to not know its place yet... perhaps we'll have to do something about that soon. But for now, Velt, dear, could you try to lift this out of the water? That might help it keep its shape. And Dajjal, my precious, could you see about blowing it dry?"

Velt took the muddy earth within his claws, shaping it, squeezing it, elminating impurities, crystallizing and concentrating it with his breath, creating a strong substance out of the soft mud, the got kept adding new earth to his construct, fusing it with the remnants of his egg.

Slowly the god shaped a large sphere of earth, letting the water remain on its surface, leaving only a little of it imprisoned within the stony shells of the construct, within the pattern of small cracks and imperfection that Velt clawed hands left during his work.

At first he made his creation perectly spherical, however the smooth surface, proved to be unreliable to held the mass of water.

Frustrated the god immersed his claws within the small planet, rising large amounts of earth and stone from it, taking some even from its core, where the pressure has made the stone burn and melt. Raising a first irregular continent from the surface of the young world, with his clawmarks vaguely visible by any spectator that could look from the sky above.

"Mother?" he told after finishing his job "Does this creation needs a name too? Like us?"

The goddess lashed out with tendrils of cloud and vapour, whipping out across the intervening space towards the newly risen sphere. Wind rushed and howled as the goddess flung herself at her brother and his creation. She smashed at it, ripped it apart. Grabbing at the continent with arms of wind, she pushed and pulled it towards the Gate, the shining Gate of Eternity at the centre of creation. She laid down the continent beneath the Gate, encircling it so that the whirling vortex sat at it epicenter, surrounded on all sides by a broad expanse of earth, clawmarks still etched across its vast surface. And the water settled as eddies and brooks in the deepest of these to form a latticework of waterways across its surface.

"You foolish child," screeched the winds, "How could you forget the Gate?"

And the winds settled across the newly formed disk, forming a protective atmosphere around the landmass and the Gate at its centre. And Dajjal crouched above it, as though daring her brother to defy her actions. And so the flat world was formed, with its pocket of air, its network of waterways, and the Gat at the centre of it all. At its edges, all faded away into the primordial debris of its origin.

"We need to protect it," said the wind, "Protect it, nurture it, for it is our bequest from the universe itself. We must not dishonour that. We must never forget."

"Now now, Dajjal, don't be like that. You should ask before taking Velt's things." Ebel wasn't particularly clear on the why-part of why that should be, so she didn't give more justification. "Still, you two work well together. Excellent work, to both of you. I am very proud."

"It might need a name, Velt, but not all things need names. Some things are beautiful just the way they are." She tried not to glance at her daughter. "This can be named, but I won't say that it must be so."

Though the rocks themselves were silent, there was a gentle trickle as the remaining water slowly drained off the continent. And in the ocean surrounding the land there was a building roar as the water cascaded out into the chaotic storm beyond. Yet even as she watched it seemed like all movement in the world was slowing and would soon stop.

"Alas, there is still much work to do. Things seem to be slowing down. Will you two help me create gods to help add motion to the world? Beings of fire and ice?"

Dajjal let out a low growl, which rolled upon the winds like thunder. But then she calmed. The clouds drifting upon the back of the goddess faded to pale grey. Not quite the pure white of cirrus, but definitely brighter than the storm clouds of earlier.

"Perhaps..." the goddess let the word linger upon the air, the 's' sound trailing off into a lasting quiver.

Slowly but surely, the wind seemed to harden, become biting. A cloud rolling across the sky found the water droplets making it up begin to freeze. And then, quite suddenly, the cloud began to fall. But it was not rain shed from the pregnant clouds.

Snow, light as air, tumbled earthward in great, breezy flurries and quickly coated the ground below in a thick blanket of white. And the wind, suddenly cheerful, tossed the fallen snow back up to mingle with snow still falling so that snowflakes danced and spun in the wind's mothering arms.

"There is your ice," murmured Dajjal, "Please take care with it."

The body of Dajjal swept low over the ground, catching a snowflake in her sights.

"Each one is special, none are identical. Each an entire universe unto itself. Beautiful because it is so fleeting, so precious. Special only while it falls. Dead once it has joined the fallen."

"Those are pretty words, befitting such beautiful works of art," Ebel said, marveling at the ice flecks. Upon the threads of the wind they danced, rising, falling, twirling, and settling only to rise again. Though it was in a world without light, the crystalline flakes seemed to twinkle gleefully, as an eye might twinkle at a surprise.

The great mother barely made a sound as she pulled out her right eye and sent it pirouetting with the snow. It too danced and floated for a moment before settling on the ground. She waited for what would come next.

Snow whirled and twirled around the unblinking eye that now layed on the ground. A lone spark of divine essence awakened in the centre of the eye and the eye shone as it gave birth to a God.

A terrible cold took the land as snow and ice bursted out of the ground and began to gather around the eye that now shone, shook and burned with the very essence of a God. The snow and ice came to life as invisible hands began to knead it, shape it and form it in to the body of a Man. A giant.

A man with skin of frost and hair of snow. Snowstorms raged in his eyes, and long, sharp icicles formed a long, thick beard on his face. As he breathed snowflakes, frost and mist made its way out of his mouth.

The god of Cold, The god of Ice, The first Giant, Od'Vidr got up from the ground, forming a robe of glittering snowflakes to hide his flesh. He towered high over his mother and his siblings as he looked down upon them with frozen eyes.

" I am Od'Vidr. Borned out of Mother's eye and Sister's spark. I am Ice. I am Frost. I am rest. I am peace. "

His voice was the voice of one that has slept, tired and confused but at the same time loud and carrying the stormy nature of a snowstorm within it.

" Tell me of my purpose in this world. Why have you give me the gift of life? "

A glistening line of ichor oozed from Ebel's right eye-socket, which she brushed aside before speaking. "Welcome, Od'Vidr, child of the cold. We created you to help add direction to the world. I will give you a frozen throne below the waters and earths and control over all that is cold, if in return you tend to the element and draw all things down, towards the cold."

The world spun for a moment for Ebel; she felt exhausted and dizzy. She reached out and summoned a pillar of the elements to help support herself. "It is my hope," Ebel continued, her left eye darting towards Velt who stood silently nearby, "that you will have a twin soon, one whose task is opposite yours, one who will draw all things up. It is my hope that together you two will bring change to this place."

0PP - Cantrip: Ebel create a stalagmite of mostly earth and ice (though the other elements are there too) to help support herself. This is only about 10 feet in height. As with all cantrip-level actions, this is either a temporary landform or one that can be undone or changed with another cantrip

Od'Vidr looked at his mother with frozen eyes, nodded at her words and whispered.

" It will be as you say Mother. Ice and cold will forever pull upon this world. "

The giant turned his head to place his stern gaze upon his sister. A creature of clouds and wind.

" Sister, Thank you for what you have done for me. I am here partly because of you. Therefore I offer my friendship and help in the days to come. "

The cold one, looked around, watching the world his family had created so far. It was a dark world. An empty world. One that lacked both cold and heat...a world with much potential for one such as Him.

Velt was tired, the shaping has left the god weakened, the world, unshaped, turned into an imperfect, limited form, things could fall beyond the cliffs?

The gate with its stream of chaotic spewing more disorder constantly so close to his beautiful creation. Protect it with a shield of air? Pointless, the god hand weaved trought the atmosphere, scattering the winds, sending large massess of it in the void beyond, too far from the grasp of the world, the gaseous clouds grew too dim and dispersed in the darkness. The god hand could have grasped the gate itself, seizing it, maybe he could have damaged it, without any real opposition, he shivered thinking about that, horrified by the idea that something could ruin it.

What kind of protection could such a thing grant? He thought, watching the small clouds that he sent away vanishing, the gates needed a shield of metal and stone, one that could not easily be broken, however sadly that would block the stream of new matter and energies, a thing that will hardly be practical. He would have to think about something, in the future maybe, when his mother mind was less strained by the act of giving life to Velt sibilings, more reasonable maybe...

The god turned at the newborn entity, aknowledging its presence.

"I welcome you among us, born from the essence and flesh of my mother and sister, Od'Vidr, bringer of rest and peace, so unlike Dajjal, yet her son... this world needs a cold stable peace. However I fear that something must be made to promote change, growth I guess, without change the world will still be void, without us"

Then he turned to face Elbe, "Mother " he asked "I'll do as you ask and do all I can to provide you with this harbringer of change"

The god mind sunk within the earth, the world forged by his power, twisted and unstable yet, an ruined work, he let his rage flow freely within it, the pressure growth, the stones crystallizing, and melting, the rocks turning red due to the intense heat. Then he turned his thoughts to the world above. He allowed the molten rock emerge to the surface burning trough the air, attracting the floating elemental patricles of fire that was originally estracted from the Gate of Creation.

The molten rock erupted, sending chaotic swirls of red burning dust and smoke into the sky, melting the snow and touching heaven with their burning rage, painting it red wiht the fury of earth. The god watched with glee the wrath of the vulcanic storm that he unleashed. He called the heat from it, the particles of fire attracted by the eruption. The earth became suddenly calm again, but changed, the continent form and shapes, altered, new mountains, lakes, creating natural sculptures of a strange earie beauty.

Satisfied the god took all the heat that he had gathered offering it to Elbe. "Here is my offer mother, so that it could burn the sky and bring change in your name..."

"Thank you, Od'Vidr," Ebel said, a cold blue light beginning to eminate from her right eye socket. Unfortunately, her words were slightly drowned out by Velt's actions.

Ebel couldn't help but smile at the show of fire and earth. She had thought that her daughter would have helped with fire and her son with ice, but this was so much better. Ice was a little airy, and this magma was a little earthy. Indeed, it was better this way.

"Thank you my dear Velt. Your sacrifice is much appreciated, and I hope honored and praised by all those gathered here." Ebel looked to Dajjal at the end, hoping that it was clear that she meant that her daughter should behave and try to make ammends to her brother.

The goddess plucked out her left eye and tossed that into the volcano. When it hit it hissed but sunk under the molten glow.

A flare of light and energy leapt from the Gate of Eternity, obliterating the eye entirely, and forcing its way into the throat of the volcano before winking out, gone as fast as it had come. A curtain of thick, black smoke erupted from the volcano's heart, not dissipating into the darkness, but swirling ever closer, a knot of twisting darkness against the shadow of the otherwise-empty expanse. As the eye burned out, the eruption ceased, the smog simply content to coagulate above the nascent planar body.

The cloud slowly stilled, seeming to gather into itself before launching forward in a fearsome blitz of motion. As it surged forward, the disparate particles within the cloud ignited, the divine will suddenly made manifest.

A single blazing cloud streaked towards the waiting divinities, abruptly stopping some distance from the summit. The mass of fire undulated unceasingly as the mind beneath the flames took in the four figures.

In time, a hissing sound was borne of the shocked silence -- a scything, rhythmic sound. It could eventually be recognized as laughter.

If you look past the plot and the voice acting, Metroid: Other M was an okay game. Not a great game, but an adequate one.
Not using the Metroid item collect jingle though? That, was a mistake.

Tears of god-blood dripped from both of Ebel's eyes now. The icy glow from one socket scanned back and forth, wondering if this was her child. She hadn't expected something so... unsettling. With a hand resting on the side of the volcano to steady herself, she drew herself to her full height and addressed the pillar of fire. "Young one? Is that you?"

"My, my, what a pleasant little one," hissed the winds whirling about the mountain, "So feisty, so very biting. She's almost...."

The winds paused, as though choosing the next word carefully.

"Fiery."

And then the vibrations upon the air mimicked the scything, rhythmic noise the flame made earlier, but higher, colder, and mocking. For a moment the winds contented themselves with dancing, spinning, roaring about the flames, whipping them about with glee.

"Od'vidr, my brother, come quick, we have a guest," cackled the wind, supremely enjoying the little game, "I'm sure you two will be fast friends."

"Of course you are, daughter dearest," Ebel said to Isura. She considered it an odd thing to assert that one was eternal... what else would one be? But each child had thus far responded in their own unique manner, so the great mother thought no more of it. "That is a very pretty name, Isura."

Since this one seemed to have a good sense of herself, Ebel decided to approach the matter slightly differently. "Do you know why you were created?" she asked.

"Daughter? Daughter?" The conflation of flames burned brighter, harsher. "Fool! I am no more your daughter than you are the gate's."

The flames arced higher, larger. "You were but the catalyst of my rebirth, the herald of my reawakening. I am Isura, and I am Fire eternal."

As suddenly as they had flared, the waves of heat abated. "As to my 'creation', as you ineptly term it, I would expect it nothing more than creative dalliance -- an accident of creativity wrought of idle hand. You judge something should exist, then work to make it so, woefully ignorant of what you tender, or to what ultimate end."

If you look past the plot and the voice acting, Metroid: Other M was an okay game. Not a great game, but an adequate one.
Not using the Metroid item collect jingle though? That, was a mistake.

"Now now, Isura, don't mumble when you're talking. Stand up straight," Ebel said. "And comb your fires; you aren't some sort of rifraf. Now, given that the gate did give birth to me, it would seem that you agree I gave birth to you... or that you spoke out of ignorance. But never mind that. Little one, as you seem to have surmised, you were created for an end. Or, more exactly, to avoid a particular ultimate end. To avoid a world of perpetual stagnation. You were birthed to bring a bit of energy to the world, to guide the fires I created, to pull up that which your brother brings down. This is the duty for which you were created. Will you accept it?"

Isura's fires flared bright, burning white hot with rage. For a moment, the being simply simmered silently, seeking some line of reason that wouldn't, couldn't, be warped by the deranged mind of Ebel.

She settled on physical action. An explosive crack, and the goddess was hurtling forward. One three-clawed arm flashed sideways, and Ebel was blown away, the left side of her face scourged by the spiteful, blue-white flames of Isura's claw.

"Are you some simpleton then? You have no claim to me, nor right to ask my purpose for your own ends! Do not mark my lack of reference as ignorance!"

If you look past the plot and the voice acting, Metroid: Other M was an okay game. Not a great game, but an adequate one.
Not using the Metroid item collect jingle though? That, was a mistake.

Od'Vidr watched as his mother gave away her sight to give the world light. He watched as Fire made its way in to the world. Knowing its purpose. He watched as spiteful fire burned Mother. Burned the one that had given her life.

As fire touched Ebels skin, a terrible cold took Od'Vidr's heart...and an odd, distant feeling filled his still tired mind. Amusement. A wry smile touched the frozen God's lips as he watched.

So this was his Mother. A weak God. One that let her own offspring burn her, one that blinded herself to give the world light.

A simpleton.

This...was a moment of great significance. Weak, blind and burnt she was.

Maybe...this was a most fitting moment to end it? To attemt to slay the first God? To ensure his own survival and power in the world that was to come?

No...not yet...there were still things to do. Words to be said and a world to build before such action was worthy the risks. The World needed one such as he.

As Ebel righted herself the left side of her face, where Isura has marred it, crumbled away, leaving a gaping, oozing wound. Oddly, though, she felt a little better, as if fatigue had been knocked out of her. Certainly, she felt better than she did any time she birthed a godling.

It was through the ichor that she smiled as her newest child. "Oh my child, you misunderstand. I was asking to be polite, not because you had a choice. You will obey me in this, you will bring change to the world. You can no more subvert my wishes than you can subvert your own nature, because I made you."

Thinking that this was a fitting moment, Ebel tried to laugh as she had seen her children laugh. It sounded like boiling water for a moment before she coughed, expelling a large clump of ichor which, when it landed, began to inch its way towards the fire goddess. Indeed, all the blood that was dripping from her many wounds made their way towards Isura, climbing up her form before they were eventually burned away.

"You can try to resist, if you so choose. You can try hide yourself away and do nothing for the age of the world. But you will grow tired of that, you will grow bored, and eventually you will do something if only to keep yourself from going mad. Every action you take, every word you speak, is a fulfillment of my purpose. You are your mother's daughter."

The cloud of flame stalked through the space, batting clumps of Ebel's blood away as she did so, sending the boiling blots spinning into empty darkness.

"Again, you know nothing. You think of yourself as the first, and decide that since you were 'first' others will bend to your will. You are no creator -- you are a catalyst and nothing more. You have no children, nor shall you ever. You are weak; caught up your in your own pretensions of playing 'mother'. You do not know me, nor can you claim to. I look here and can see all that exists -- a single rock? Whispering winds? A living storm of ice?"

"These are not the great works of the master -- they are the feeble drawings of a neophyte; you act, and you proselytize, and you make grand plans, and you say grand things, but the bitter truth? The bitter truth is that you know nothing -- how to do nothing, know nothing about how things work, how you will hope them to be. You are a pretender, a magician's apprentice, one who has stumbled upon something great, and rather than master that power, you cry out, demanding worship from the pawns you create. I am no pawn 'mother'." The word was quite literally spat out, a stream of flame closing the distance, only barely burning out before it would hit Ebel's face.

"You are not worthy of demanding obedience. You are an insipid charlatan and nothing more. I have been long before you drew yourself together, and I shall exist long after your spark is extinguished once more. Fire is eternal -- do you even grasp the significance of the term? I am the newest incarnation of Fire, I am Isura, and I will not bow, especially to one as weak as you."

If you look past the plot and the voice acting, Metroid: Other M was an okay game. Not a great game, but an adequate one.
Not using the Metroid item collect jingle though? That, was a mistake.

"Oh, silly child, silly, silly, silly silly..." said Dajjal, and the winds picked up the chant of 'silly'.

And amidst those chanting winds, she continued.

"Don't you understand? We are all pawns? At least the rest of us are pawns with a purpose," said Dajjal, snorting scornfully, "What have you done, Isura-the-Eternal? Are you Isura-who-made-the-world? No. Are you Isura-who-spawned-the-children? No. You are simply defined as Isura-who-is-not-the-Daughter. That is who you are, that is all you are. And you pretend that you are something more?"

"Isura," spoke the winds, ending their chant.

"You are a fool, what point is there in railing against your mother? Railing against your catalyst? Semantics, truly. Catalyst? Mother? Synonyms, all. She has claim, to you because she did something to bring about your coming. You may have sprang from the Gate, squealing, protesting, whining like a child, but you came. And she brought you. And forevermore will she have that power over you, that claim over you. Because you will forevermore be concerned with not being Isura-borne-of Ebel. And no matter whether you succeed or not, one thing will always be true. It will always be for her. You will always be defined by Ebel. And so you will always be in her power."

The winds swirled about the goddess for a moment.

"So go. Leave this place. You have embarrassed yourself enough. Leave and never come back. And if you can accomplish that, then maybe, maybe, you can make a name for yourself, an existence for yourself separate for your mother. But stay here, continue to fight against her, and you will forevermore be known as Isura-who-believes-she-is-not-the-Daughter.

Ebel smiled and strolled forward, the stream of flame that Isura spat out parting for her as she went. She stopped and patted the fire goddess on the head. "Oh you are so cute when you're angry. I could just eat you up."

The great mother turned to Velt and spoke, "I think our daughter will be the perfect for the job. She's so hot tempered, already I feel the world being invigorated. Thank you my son."

"Though, perhaps not as pretty as her sister," Ebel said, glancing in Dajjal's direction.

"Don't worry," she said, looking again at Isura, "I'm sure as you grow up you'll fill out nicely. Now run along, there's a world out there in need of 'great works.' Or do you feel like you still need to get some of your anger out? It's okay, I can take it, and I will still love you."